Characterization of the composition of the human gut microbiome during the course of Plasmodium falciparum infection, episodes of malaria and therapeutic treatment.

This experiment is designed to test the hypothesis that the composition of the human gut microbiome is associated with the quality of P. falciparum-induced host immune responses, the risk and severity of malarial episodes, and/or drugs used to treat the disease. Stool samples were collected from participating human subjects in Mali at different time points before, during and after a 6-month malaria season (from July through December) when intense P. falciparum-transmission occurs. The v4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was then amplified by PCR from DNA extracted from the stool samples and sequenced using Illumina MiSeq technology. For each subject, a total of five stool samples were collected every 2-3 months during the period May 2014-March 2015. If individuals developed clinical malaria, two additional stool samples were collected before and after antimalaria treatment.